President Trump’s move to rebuild trust with President Putin is welcome and overdue

Western politicians and journalists constantly tell us that President Putin cannot be trusted, and that, under no circumstances should anyone strike a deal with him. But in response to that rhetorical question, I always ask, ‘do you think that he trusts us?’

I found the Steve Witkoff interview with Tucker Carlson fascinating, from a diplomatic perspective. Witkoff has been largely pilloried by the British mainstream media, but I found his comments a masterclass in diplomatic tradecraft, putting maximum emphasis on the steps being taken to build trust with President Putin (and, by implication, the lower priority given to building relations with Zelensky).

His language was carefully crafted, referring to Putin as ‘super smart’ and ‘gracious’. The small details about Putin praying for Trump after the assassination attempt and having a painting made for the US President sounded authentic to me, having lived in Russia for four and a half years, and got to know the ‘Russian soul’ and their love of art, fairly well,

Russian people like to get personal. And trust is built on small, significant gestures and mutual respect. It is extremely complicated building trust with people of different cultures, languages and worldviews etc. I get the impression Witkoff is figuring out quickly how to set the right tone in Moscow, with a focus on encouraging President Putin towards a peace deal, when he is under no great time pressure to settle.

Diplomacy is a people business, after all. A point completely lost, it seems, on most members of the UK and European elite. Trust is vital. And trust between the US and Russia has been almost destroyed over the past eleven years.

I don’t believe for a minute that Russia can’t ever be trusted or that decision makers in the west are purer than the driven snow. Trust is about making a deal and sticking to it. Russian people value that, in my experience.

I often recall taking my family on holiday to Dubai to escape the Moscow winter in early 2015. With the kids still very young, we loaded up the minibus taxi with luggage, pushchairs and car seats etc. and made our way to Sheremetyevo through the morning snow.

At the airport, I discovered that I only had a 5000 rouble note for the 2500 rouble fare and the driver, having unloaded our stuff, was clearly in a hurry to get back in his warm cab and drive home.

He took one look at the crisp note and said he didn’t have change.

I had absolutely no intention of dashing into the terminal, finding somewhere to break the note, while navigating very young kids, luggage trolleys and a diminutive wife whose saintly patience would only stretch so far.

So I looked at the cab driver and he looked at me, wondering how we’d break the deadlock.

I could have tried not to pay, but that would have caused an argument and, in any case, that’s not the sort of move I’d ever pull anyway.

I could have asked him to check whether, in fact, he did have change, being that he was a taxi driver. But then he may well have been offended, because he’d clearly told me that he didn’t have change, and why shouldn’t I believe him?

In the end, I decided that, as it was before 7 in the morning, he probably didn’t have change, and that, as it was minus ten degrees outside on the frosty kerbside, I’d have to trust him.

So I said, ‘look, take the 5000 rouble note. Our flight gets back on this date at this time, and if you can come and pick us up and we’ll be even.’

He nodded, shook my hand without much of a smile and disappeared.

I had his phone number, but there was practically nothing I could have done had he simply disappeared and left us stranded at the airport upon our return two weeks later.

So it was with a certain trepidation that we passed through the diplomatic lane at passport control and I wondered whether he’d be in arrivals.

As it happens, he was, just as we’d agreed.

I smiled at him, he offered a smile back, we loaded up the minibus, clicked the kids into their car seats, and headed back into the centre of Moscow.

Right back in 2014, a colleague and friend in the Russian Presidential Administration told me that it would take at least a decade to rebuild the trust lost over the Maidan and Yanukovych’s ouster.

It will take much longer now, after three years of devastating war. President

Zelensky, European politicians and the mainstream media scream at us constantly that Putin can’t be trusted. They claim, with no basis in evidence, that Putin has broken 25 (pick any number that you like) ceasefires in Ukraine since 2014.

Yet I wonder when we’ve really trusted Putin to stick to a deal and trusted in ourselves to hold to our end of the bargain?

One thing’s for sure; everyone in the Russian state apparatus would say that western leaders have broken every promise that they made in the past, including on NATO expansion, and have acted in shockingly bad faith in other ways, including in orchestrating a coup in Kyiv and in setting up the Minsk 2 agreement to fail.

The problem with refusing to talk to President Putin since the war started, and minimising all diplomatic contact with Russia since 2014, is that you reduce opportunities to rebuild trust to almost nought.

How do you trust someone you dislike and then refuse ever to talk to again? It’s like schoolkids falling out epically, with 6000 nuclear missiles thrown into the mix.

You focus obsessively on owning the media narrative of ‘I’m right and you’re wrong’, as if you are a ten year old using X for the first time in the playground.

You tell all your closest friends and family members about how awful the other person is, and they nod and say, ‘oh, I know’ like Sybil Fawlty.

Trust is a two-way exchange. Now and then, you have to take a chance on trusting someone, when your instincts raise questions.

Zelensky clearly doesn’t trust Putin, but he also has no interest in peace, from my observation. When he made it illegal to talk to Putin or any Russian official, he was investing in a continuance of the war, hoping the west would back him come what may. And despite the rapid shift in U.S. policy over the past two months, many decision makers in Europe still do want to back Zelensky come what may, which is a worrying thing.

But peace in Ukraine will only be possible once the grown-ups start talking again. Donald Trump and his emissary Steve Witkoff, seem to be taking positive steps in the right direction, though a difficult road lies ahead.

In one month, President Trump has spoken to President Putin for four hours, which is probably four times more time that Biden spent in engagement in the preceding four years. There are stark parallels with Reagan and Gorbachev in the Eighties, breaking down barriers to focus on the longer-term good.

Right now, Trump and Putin are the only grown ups in the conversation. Let’s hope the small steps towards trust they are taking now, develop into something lasting. The world needs it. Though I remain skeptical that European leaders are ready to follow Trump’s lead.